Writing technical documentation in 2010 and beyond

If new technologies are creating new social behaviours in people, do those writing technical documentation need to adapt to these changes?

Linda Stone, who coined the phrase “continous partial attention“, argues users have, over time, changed the way they use technology. They’ve moved from an era of creating, to an era of connecting and then onto one of belonging.

So should technical documentation also help people do more than assist someone to complete a task? Can you write technical documentation that also provides users with a sense of belonging?

This is one of the themes we’ll be discussing in the free Webinar this Thursday (“Documentation as an emotional experience for users“). The Webinar includes polling of the audience and a debate over the validity of this viewpoint – you’ll be able to express your opinion with others.

These are excellent questions to raise! I often say that technical documentation provides a great opportunity to strengthen relationships with customers (for example, see my post, <a href=”http://wordindeed.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/rethinking-the-usefulness-of-your-documents/”here), which goes hand-in-hand with the idea of belonging.

I’d love to join the webinar, but I can’t make it at that time. Will there be a rebroadcast?